The present invention relates to new, stable, solid acetyl peroxyborate compounds (compounds containing active oxygen and derived from acetic acid and boron-oxygen compounds), a process for producing such acetyl peroxyborate compounds, and to detergent, bleaching agent, cleaning agent and disinfectant compositions as well as oxidizing agents for use in organic synthesis, which compositions contain such acetyl peroxyborate compounds.
Both inorganic and organic active oxygen compounds are used in detergents, bleaching agents and cleaning agents, particularly those used for textiles, in disinfectants and as oxidizing agents. Examples of such active oxygen compounds include perborates, persulfates, mono and diperoxycarboxylic acids and, in particular, perborate/activator combinations which form peracetic acid in situ.
In comparison with pure inorganic percompounds, such as perborate, the peroxycarboxylic acids, such as e.g. diperoxydodecanedioic acid (DPDDA) or peracetic acid, and perborate/activator combinations, such as perborate/TAED systems, are characterized by a low effective temperature and a high bleaching and disinfectant power. Also, it is well known in the art that perborates and peroxycarboxylic acids can be used in chemical synthesis as oxidizing agents for oxidizing organic compounds.
The use of suitable peroxycarboxylic acids for the aforementioned applications is therefore increasingly desirable. Although progress in the use of peroxycarboxylic acids has been made by the development and marketing of peroxycarboxylic acids and/or combinations of perborates and activators which form peroxycarboxylic acids, there remain disadvantages to be overcome with respect to the utilization of peroxycarboxylic acids and/or activators which form peroxycarboxylic acids.
For many applications, the only peroxycarboxylic acids that are generally suitable are those which are solid at room temperature, i.e. fairly long-chain aliphatic peroxycarboxylic acids such as DPDDA which, however, has a poor solubility in water. In addition, peroxycarboxylic acids are thermally and mechanically sensitive in the pure or highly concentrated states, and solid peroxycarboxylic acids must therefore be stabilized by suitable desensitizing agents, e.g. hydrate-forming inorganic salts such as sodium sulfate. A disadvantage in this regard is that the stability of the desensitized solid peroxycarboxylic acids is influenced considerably by the type and method of peroxycarboxylic acid production and by the desensitization. In addition, long-chain peroxycarboxylic acids may be harmful to the environment because of the long hydrocarbon chain.
In comparison, peracetic acid--being a short-chain peroxycarboxylic acid with only two carbon atoms--is safe for the environment and has good water solubility. However the disadvantage of peracetic acid is that it is liquid at room temperature. In addition, it can only be produced as a solution of peracetic acid in acetic acid, but not in pure form. As a result, the possibilities for using peracetic acid as such are limited. To eliminate this disadvantage, activators such as tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED) have been developed in the prior art, which are capable of forming peracetic acid in situ in the presence of persalts such as perborate. In this case, however, it is a disadvantage that H.sub.2 O.sub.2 must initially be formed from the persalt, which produces the peracetic acid only subsequently by reaction with the activator. However, the formation of peracetic acid can be adversely affected by premature decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide formed in situ. In order to be able to better utilize the advantages of peracetic acid there is therefore a need for a simple, stable, non-deliquescent active oxygen compound with an oxidizing and/or bleaching effect, which is based on a short-chain acetic acid.